I’ve written before about localized generic domains and the potential upside they provide for a new business:

“I like to think of these little gems as ‘instabrands.’ Imagine you’re a an entrepreneur opening a relatively modest local business…say, a tree care company in Toledo, OH. … You head on over to GoDaddy and start hunting for a great domain name.

Here’s where the savvy and not-so-savvy entrepreneurs part ways. The not-so will immediately think of (and probably be able to register) a unique domain based on his chosen company domain. Think “MadHatterTreeService.com.” He’ll rejoice in the fact that he was able to get the domain for 8 bucks and happily move on to setting up his website. What he won’t realize - probably for several years - is that the use of that brand-oriented domain will greatly increase the work he needs to do to educate his customers - and potential customers - about his services, and indeed about his existence.

The savvy entrepreneur, however, gladly seeks out a localized generic domain that accurately describes his business and the geographic area in which he operates. ToledoTreeCare.com is born and he’ll probably be rewarded with high localized search results.” (from the original instabrands post)

Just a couple of short weeks after writing that post, I came across a great example that illustrates my instabrand point:

I own the domain toledotreecare.com (a favorite localized generic of mine). Over the weekend, I did a bit of optimizing on my parked page and had the occasion to pull up the site. I quickly glanced at the listed ads and chuckled a bit when I read the fourth one down:

That little ad tells me that the good folks at Complete Tree are paying good money for an online marketing campaign that is somehow tied to the keywords TOLEDO TREE CARE. Could that money have been better spent by buying the instabrand toledotreecare.com?

I think so. So far, the domain is getting decent type-in traffic but very few clicks, a traffic pattern that highlights the value of the domain more than anything else. Had Complete Tree bought the domain, they would capture every one of the type-in visitors that they’re not capturing now. Every single one.

And to think that the toledotreecare.com domain was available for first registration less than one month ago! I don’t know when they started their advertising campaign that produced those search results, but I’m betting it was more than a month ago.

On a broader scale, this anecdote tells me something else. It seems to indicate that small businesses - those that stand to gain the most from the use of localized generic domains - have not yet realized the opportunities that are still out there. I know that’s a broad generalization based on a single experience, but something in my gut tells me it’s an accurate one.

Technorati Tags: domain names